The Going Visual Blog hosts an ongoing conversation on the emerging evolution of communication from text to still and video images using technologies such as digital cameras, camera-phones and other mobile devices, videocams, computers, software and communication networks. It is a living diary of the state and direction of visual communication.

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May 04, 2006

Nokia Unveils 3.2MP, 3x Optical Zoom N93

By Tony Henning

Nokia last week took the wraps off the latest round of
Nseries handsets, and the flagship N93 is loaded with multimedia goodness. The
Nokia N93 features a 3.2-megapixel (2,048 x 1,536 pixels) camera with a Carl
Zeiss Vario-Tessar 3x optical zoom
lens, as well as up to 20x digital zoom, auto-focus and close-up mode. The N93
also offers DVD-like video capture — MPEG4 at 30 fps with stereo audio recording
and digital stabilization. You can connect the N93 directly to your TV or
upload your images and video to online albums or blogs. Nokia has made a deal
with Yahoo so its new camera-phones can directly upload full-size photos to the
Flickr photo-sharing site. Moreover, you can create high-quality home movies
and burn them to DVD with the included Adobe Premiere Elements 2.0 software
(for Windows XP only, alas).

The Nokia N93 has an active camera toolbar that displays all
available capture features, from exposure value to color tones and white
balance. There are dedicated keys for shutter, zoom and flash and also a camera
mode key that enables you to switch quickly between image and video capture. On
the typical camera-phone, nearly all camera adjustments and controls are buried
deep in nested menus and therefore rarely used, so we applaud these much-needed
features. The phone features internal memory of up to 50 MB, which can be
further expanded with a hot swappable miniSD card of up to 2 GB (a 128 MB card
is included), allowing users to capture up to 90 minutes of high-quality video
or close to 2,500 full resolution photos. The Nokia N93 includes a stereo FM
radio and a digital music player as well as Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g) and UPnP
(Universal Plug and Play), Bluetooth 2.0, and USB 2.0 via Pop-Port interface
and mass storage class support to support drag and drop functionality.

The handset echoes the Rubik’s cube design of the N92, but
with a couple of refinements. The camera is still mounted in the hinge, which
allows plenty of room for those lovely Zeiss optics, and the big 2.4-inch,
QVGA, 262,144-color, 160°-viewing angle screen still rotates in multiple
directions so you can use the phone like a regular clamshell, operate the
camera pistol-style like a camcorder, or set it flat on a table with the screen
in landscape orientation for browsing the web, watching video like a PMP or
making hands-free video calls with the CIF (352 x 288) sub-camera, but the post
around which it swivels is now at the other end of the hinge — near the zoom
and shutter controls instead of the camera lens. There’s also a small 1.1-inch,
128 x 36-pixel, 65,536-color sub-display. All this functionality and
versatility comes at a price, of course — an estimated, unsubsidized sales price
of approximately €550 euros [almost $700 at today’s exchange rates] and, in
this era of ever-slimmer phones, a rather bulky 118.2 x 55.5 x 28.2-mm,
180-gram package (twice as thick and twice as heavy as the Moto Razr V3c, for
example). The N93 will be commercially available in July 2006.

With all the functionality being integrated into
these devices, Nokia would like us to stop calling them camera-phones, or
video-phones, or MP3-phones — or even phones — and instead refer to them as
“multimedia computers.” While the point is well taken — these amazing
electronic gizmos have gone way past being just phones or even hyphenated
phones — the term “multimedia computer” doesn’t exactly resonate either. You
already have a multimedia computer — it’s the Mac or Windows XP box on your
desktop — and the term conveys neither the breadth of functionality nor the
intensely personal nature of today’s mobile phones. Multimedia fails to
communicate uses such as information management, barcode reading, or mobile
wallet functions, to name just a few, and while the processing power in your
hand is rapidly approaching that of yesterday’s desktop computer, that word is
too cold and dry and businesslike to describe the indispensable consumer
electronic device that you’ve tricked out with your favorite ringtones,
ring-back tones, wallpapers, covers, holsters, skins, Swarovski crystals, and
dangly bits of cuddliness and bling. Nominations are now open for a much
needed, more marketable and catchier name. Send suggestions to thenning@mobileimagingreport.com.